The potential for language to reflect/affect societal beliefs surrounding gendered violence

Countervoices, The Centre for Modern Studies Postgraduate Forum, provides a platform for research students working within the modern period to present pieces of work and to share ideas with other students from across the humanities disciplines. By focusing on the interdisciplinary role of the forum, we hope that a fruitful exchange of ideas and perspectives can be achieved in a manner that disciplinary segregation is simply unable to provide.

The abstracts for both talks are given below. Please join us for these and the resulting roundtable.

 

Flora Sagers, PhD Student, Department of English and Related Literatures:

'Serial/Simultaneous: Authenticity, the Self, and Trauma in Maggie Nelson'

Abstract:

The paper I will deliver explores the presentation of trauma through serialisation in the work of the acclaimed autofictional writer and critic, Maggie Nelson. Focussing on Nelson’s The Red Parts: Autobiography of a Trial (2017) and Jane: A Murder (2016), I argue that these texts should be viewed in series. After all, whilst Jane: A Murder (2016) sees Nelson appropriate the voice of her murdered Aunt Jane and explores Nelson’s haunting of and by Jane in an autofictional format, the autotheoretical The Red Parts (2017) details the simultaneous trial of Jane’s alleged killer and Nelson’s promotional schedule for Jane: A Murder. Viewing these two texts as, and in, series, then, allows for an in-depth analysis of authenticity: where does authenticity reside in autofictional works? How might the serialisation of the self help Nelson to authentically present her self? I argue that Nelson refracts and reflects both her self and the intergenerational trauma of her family through the serial form of these texts, and the modes of serialisation found in their pages, positing that the serial form is uniquely suited to a contemporary authentic examination of trauma, gendered violence, family dynamics, and the artist as public and private persona. Indeed, I argue that the very gaps inherent within the series – both in the form of considered, blank, pages in Jane: A Murder (2016), and in the gap in time between publications – are an integral component of the authentic presentation of a self experiencing trauma. 

Sarah Lapacz, PhD student in the Department for Linguistics:

'The influence of linguistic structures and reported details in victim blaming on the perception of guilt'

Abstract: Evidence in the investigation of sexual assault often relies entirely on provided statements (Capps and Ochs 1995: 21), which underlines the complexity of the issues of sexual violence and the importance that the language used in connection with those crimes carries. Despite extensive research into the effects of rape myths and victim blaming (VB) on the perception of guilt and blame (cf. e.g. Bernard et al. 2015; Cohn et al. 2009; Ellison & Munro 2010), little research has been done on the different types of victim blaming and in how far they can vary in their influence on those perceptions. 

The present study explores the influence of VB (based on reported details and linguistic structures) in witness statements on the perceived level of guilt of the accuser (A) and the alleged perpetrator (P) in cases of date rape. It also investigates how the witness’ (W) level of trustworthiness and competence were influenced by the inclusion of the different types of VB in their statement. 

Data was collected from 40 US and 40 UK nationals via an online survey. The analysis showed that VB affects the perception of guilt of P, as well as of A, if only slightly. P was predominantly judged as being less guilty in cases where VB occurred, with the blame being partially shifted onto A. Generally, participants rated W lower in trustworthiness and competence when W commented on V’s outfit. Beyond this, the effect of other forms of VB presented in the statements is rather minor.

 

Zoom link: https://york-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/97811937374?pwd=UWZldFpJZEVlMGpIZXRYR3dGaEFpQT09  Zoom ID: 978 1193 Passcode: 026946